César Chávez/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby. Protesters hold up signs for fair wages in front of a grocery store. One of them throws a tomato at a passerby. Tim and Moby observe from across the street. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Uh, you first. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, Why are we celebrating César Chávez's birthday? Thanks, Jared. César Chávez was a Mexican American farm worker who led a campaign to improve the working conditions of millions of other farm workers. An image shows Chávez. TIM: He was one of the greatest civil rights leaders of the twentieth century. Chavez was born in North Gila Valley near Yuma, Arizona, on March 31st, 1927. An image shows Yuma, Arizona, on a United States map. TIM: During the Great Depression, his family was swindled out of their home. They headed to California to find temporary work on farms. A line on the map shows the Chávez family's route from Yuma to central California. TIM: People who move around the country harvesting seasonal crops are called migrant workers. Chávez's family picked peas and lettuce in the winter, cherries and beans in the spring, corn and grapes in the summer, and cotton in the fall. Images show the Chávez family doing the work Tim describes. TIM: Because they moved so often, Chávez went to more than thirty schools. An image shows pictures of schools. MOBY: Beep? TIM: No, a migrant farmer's life wasn't easy. It didn't pay much, and workers often lived in government camps without access to clean water or bathrooms. An image shows a U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Workers Community consisting of rows of tents. TIM: Kids had to switch schools all the time, and sometimes, in order to raise enough money to keep their families fed, they couldn't go to school at all. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, sure, it's fun to get a day off from school every once in a while. But without a decent education, children of migrant workers couldn't learn the skills that could help them get better jobs. Images show a book, a calculator, and a pencil writing on paper. A large red X is drawn over each image. TIM: Young César left school after eighth grade to work in the fields after his father was in an accident and could no longer work to feed the family. An image shows a young Chávez outside of a school. TIM: After serving in the Navy for two years, Chávez returned to field labor. An image shows men working in a field. TIM: Soon, he became the leader of a civil rights group for Latino Americans, who made up the majority of the farming labor community. Conditions for farm workers remained pretty bad, so eventually, Chávez got, well, he just got fed up. A lot of other people got fed up, too. In 1962, he and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farm Workers Association to improve wages and working conditions. An image shows Chávez with Dolores Huerta. TIM: It was a labor union, a group of workers who joined together in order to protect their rights. Because Chávez was influenced by the peaceful rebellions led by Mahatma Gandhi in India, he always used non-violent ways to get his point across. An image shows Mahatma Gandhi. TIM: Like Martin Luther King Junior, another student of Gandhi, Chávez relied on three techniques: strikes, boycotts, and protest marches. An image of Martin Luther King, Junior is shown next to Gandhi. TIM: All three of these came in handy in 1965. That year, the National Farm Workers Association joined up with a group of grape pickers striking in Delano, California. An image shows workers protesting and carrying signs. TIM: A strike happens when employees of a particular company all decide not to go to work. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Well, yeah, usually it's a good thing to go to work. But a strike is a non-violent way for workers to demand things like better wages, safer working conditions, or more affordable healthcare from their employers. Companies don't want employees to strike, because it costs money. So they’ll often negotiate with strikers, and both sides will come to a compromise. An image shows company executives who have dollar signs for eyes. TIM: Chávez also led a protest march from Delano to Sacramento, the California state capital. An image shows protestors holding signs up in front of the state's capital building. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Well, protest marches show that people care about an issue, which can help convince leaders to pass new laws. An image shows a U.S. senator holding a document. TIM: Finally, Chávez helped convince millions of Americans to boycott grapes, to refuse to buy or eat them in support of the strikers. An image shows grapes and other fruit in a grocery store. TIM: The strike he led finally ended in 1970, leading not just to better conditions for grape pickers, but also to more strikes and unions all over the country. A map shows areas in the United States where unions formed. TIM: It also caused a bunch of different labor unions to join up into the United Farm Workers, an organization that still works for the rights of farm workers today. An image shows the United Farm Workers logo. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Well, Chávez is best known for the grape pickers strike. But he worked for the rest of his life for the rights of farm workers and of Mexican American immigrants. He died on April 23rd, 1993. Today, eight states recognize his birthday as a holiday, and cities all over the country have streets, schools, and other buildings named after him. An image shows César E. Chávez Elementary School. Behind Tim and Moby, the protesters are still outside the grocery store holding up their signs demanding fair wages. TIM: Maybe we should find a different store.Category:BrainPOP Transcripts